The full story...

New TV channel proposed for low profile sports

ELEANOR HALL: The Australian Sports Commission is looking into the possibility of setting up a dedicated TV sports channel that would broadcast sports not already being shown. Sports like netball, rowing and hockey would be aggregated into one channel, as Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL: To some people, there's already too much sport on television but to others there's never enough, especially when it comes to less recognised sports such as rowing, netball or hockey.

While sports like Aussie rules, rugby league, cricket and soccer are all tied up with lucrative broadcasting deals, the less recognised sports rarely ever see the light of day on television.

But that could be about to change with the Australian Sports Commission examining the idea of a new dedicated sports television channel for the less well known sports.

John Wylie is the chairman of the Australian Sports Commission.

JOHN WYLIE: So we are looking at a feasibility study to look at bringing together all of the sports that struggle to get broadcast exposure in Australia today.

So there is a large number of sports, Australians love to watch them, but they don't have the commercial power of an AFL or an NRL or even cricket or soccer and so we're looking at aggregating all of those sports, putting them on one channel where they agree to work together exclusively.

So it could be sports like hockey, like netball, like rowing and we could form a new Australian sports television network and this would be effectively the exclusive vehicle for showing their content and their product and their international competitions.

ALISON CALDWELL: And at what stage are you at with that?

JOHN WYLIE: We're doing a feasibility study. It's early days. There's a lot of excitement from people who are in and around the media who understand these things; they understand that Australians love their sport, they love to watch sport.

These smaller sports have historically struggled to get the larger audience and get the substantial commercial sponsors but so for that reason if we aggregate it into one channel, into one network, we think that there is something interesting to work with.

ALISON CALDWELL: You mentioned you are looking at Foxtel for it, I guess that's because of the advertising potential. You wouldn't look at a public broadcaster?

JOHN WYLIE: It's, as I said, it's early days. It could be through pay television, it could be through internet protocol television, it could be through public broadcasting. We'll look at all distribution outlets for it. The most important thing in modern media is content is king and we think that this could be fantastic content and really interesting for all Australians.

ALISON CALDWELL: And that's the chairman of the Australian Sports Commission, John Wylie speaking to Alison Caldwell.